Story+1985-08-09+Chicago,+IL

´´Now, when we were....traveling down through Texas....on the first part of....our American tour.... there was a lot of folks down there from up north...that came down to work....in the oil fields or in the oil refineries ....but when the price of oil dropped, they started laying ´em off and they´d end up down there with the family, their wife and their kids, sleeping in a tent pitched out on the the highway....they´re sleeping in their cars....with no jobs, no place to go ....this is called ´Seeds´....”
 * 09.08.85 Chicago, IL, intro to ´Seeds´**

”Thanks....yeah....thanks, this is a song, uh....I remember when I was a kid....I was still living at home with my folks....and uh.....my old man used to have this trick he used to pull on me and my sister...where he’d lock up the frontdoor at night....and he´d sit in the kitchen so we used to have to come in through the backdoor so he could tell what time we were gonna come in....and, uh, I can remember I´d stand in the driveway and uh....I guess I was about 17 .... I had a real long hair, yeah, and he used to hate it, couldn’t stand it, we used to fight about it all the time....so at night, like, I´d try and tuck it way inside my collar so he couldn´t tell how long it was and I´d slick it back, I´d pull my collar up....and he´d have the lights off in the kitchen so all I could see was really the light of his cigarette....and I´d bundle up and I´d get my nerve up and I´d walk in through the backdoor....and I’d get through the kitchen ...then I´d get through the livingroom and my mom´d be sleeping on the sofa in front of the TV....and I´d be thinking that I made it and just as I got my foot on that bottom step, I’d hear ”Bruuuce” (chuckles) it was....you know, he´d call me to come back and sit down with him .....and we never used to talk, that was the worst part about it was I´d go back and I´d sit on the, on the chair across the table and he’d sit there for about five minutes and not say anything... and then finally he’d say.....’What do you think you’re doing with yourself ?... you know, and I´d sit there and I wouldn´t say anything....I don´t know, anyway, I used to, what I used to do some nights was I had a sleeping bag that I used to keep stashed under a porch and some nights if I was gonna be too late, I´d wait and come home in the morning after he´d had a chance to sleep a little bit....I’d sleep in a friend of mine’s car....or on somebody´s porch somewhere....and now when I go back home, sometimes those places where I used to sleep seem more like....home to me than my own house did then...but uh, anyway, this is a song because.... everybody needs some place to go on those nights when they can’t go home.....”
 * 09.08.85 Chicago, IL, intro to ´The River´**

´´Let me sit down a minute, oh man, I gotta rest now, you know....yeah, I´m getting old.... oh, ooh, yeah....I´m 35 now....that´s a big one (chuckles)....now, Roy, he´s 36....that´s over the hill, you´ve had it by then....I still got a few months left yet to live....but now, hey, Tom Seaver got 300, he´s, uh....he´s 40, right ?....hey, I got some, I got some faith to keep on going now (chuckles)...yeah, now, the Big Man, he´s older than Tom Seaver....but somehow he always maintains his youthful beauty....yes he does....anyway....I´d like to do this for any of you guys out there that are married or you got your kids with you tonight....this is for all you guys ´cause in the end....it ain´t nothing but glory days....”
 * 09.08.85 Chicago, IL, intro to ´Glory Days´**

´´This, uh, this next song is a song I wrote....I was living in California for a while....I was thinking back....on the town that I´d grown up in....what it was like now, what was happening there now....and uh, I guess when I was a kid, I was always afraid of....belonging to something, like I couldn´t wait till I got out of town and I knew...said I´d never miss my friends, never miss my folks....I got out on the road....and as I got older, I´d start to come back home, I´d get in my car and drive the streets that I´d grown up on....look up some of my friends and see what their lives were like now....and I realised that when I was a kid I was afraid of belonging to something because if you admit that you belong to something that means you got some responsobility there....if you stand up and you say ´Well, I´m an American´, that means you got some responsobility to your country....and uh, tonight, tonight in the audience we´ve got representatives....from....the Greater Chicago Food Depository.... from the Second Harvest Foodbank of Wisconsin....from the Steelworkers For Steelworkers Foodbank out of Gary...Indiana....and these are all foodbanks and what a foodbank is is every year in our country 20 percent of all the food that gets produced gets wasted and thrown away...and meanwhile in every city and in every town we´ve got people going to bed at night hungry....we got, uh, senior citizens whose social security checks don´t get ´em through the month, people who been hit hard by unemployment and with the government cutbacks on social spending....the way they are it´s not getting any better, it´s getting worse for these people.....and what a foodbank does is it gets that food that would be wasted and it gets it to the agencies that serve the people....and what you guys can do is there´ll be some numbers for these foodbanks out at the concession stands tonight and what they need is they need some volunteers....or they need some contributions....they´re here in your town trying to make Chicago and the whole surrounding area a better and a more decent place for all of its citizens...so in the end if you can help them out....I´d appreciate it and they´d appreciate it and this is your hometown so you do something about it....”
 * 09.08.85 Chicago, IL, intro to ´My Hometown´**

´´I remember when.....I was growing up....I always remember my parents working really hard ....how it´d seem like they´d always end up with so little....I remember my mom would always go down to the finance company....and borrow money for us for Christmas....and by the time she got it paid off, she´d borrow money for us to have clothes to go to school....by the time she got that paid off, she´d have to borrow money....but for some reason she always got through it....but it seemed that it always bothered my, my dad a lot more....and he´d sit in the kitchen....thinking about everything that....we wasn´t ever gonna have.....until he´d get me thinking like that too....I can remember laying up in bed....feeling like if something didn´t happen....if something didn´t change somehow....I always felt like I was just gonna....like if something....I always felt like I was just.....like someday I´d just....I´d just....”
 * 09.08.85 Chicago, IL, intro to ´I´m on Fire´**

´´Alright, take it easy now....now, this is a song about....the conflict between worldly things and spiritual health.... between desires of the flesh, sexual desire....and spiritual ecstasy .... now, where did this conflict begin ? ....well, it began in the beginning in a place called the Garden of Eden....that´s right....now, the Garden of Eden was originally believed to have been located in Mesopotamia....but the latest theological studies have discovered, and you´re gonna be reading this in the Christian Science Monitor any day now, that its actual location was ten miles south of Jersey City, off the New Jersey Turnpike....that´s why they call it the Garden State !....oh yeah.... now, in the Garden of Eden, man, there wasn´t, wasn´t none of the accoutrements of modern living....you didn´t have no TV....no, you couldn´t go home and like put the little Pop-Tarts in the toaster, you know, and bring them in the bedroom and get in the bed and watch Johnny Carson ....no !....you couldn´t go out on to the highway and buy a cheeseburger if you wanted one....no, Sir !....in the Garden of Eden there was no sin.... there was no sex....man lived in a state of innocence....now, when it comes to no sex, I prefer the state of guilt that I constantly live in....oh, in the Garden of Eden there were many wonderous things : there was a Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, oh, that was dangerous ....there was Adam, there was Eve and, oh, she looked so fine....yes she did....and when Adam kissed her, it was the first time that a man had ever kissed a woman.....and she had legs that were long and soft to the touch....and when he touched her, it was the first time that a man had ever touched a woman....oh, and he got real close to her and he said ´Ooh, I love you, baby´ .... and then they walked out into the green fields....and they lay down....and when Adam....well, let´s say it was just the first time....but there was something else in the Garden of Eden on that day, old Satan came slithering up on his belly and somehow he turned their sweet love into a betrayal and sent them driving down into the darkness below....but that´s alright because right here tonight on this backlot, for 99.95 and no money down, I´ve got the keys to their getaway car.....if you´ve got bad credit, don´t worry it´s good here and if you´ve got the nerve to ride....we´ve got the first....pink... Cadillac ...”
 * 09.08.85 Chicago, IL, intro to ´Pink Cadillac´**

´´Thank you, thanks....I´d like, I´d like to just take a minute and thank everybody for coming down to the show here tonight....thank you very much....I know a lot of you guys waited in line a long time for tickets and things an....I want you to know we appreciate it...the two visits that we´ve made here....on our tour ´ve been really great for us this year and....oh.... I remember when I was a kid....and uh....I always remember citing that, you know, Pledge of Allegiance every morning before class....and you´d get up and you´d go (?) and you´d mumble through it and stuff....not thinking that much about what it was about....or ever thinking that much about what your flag was about....but I remember when, even when I was little, that the one thing that....that I always thought that it meant....was when I looked up at the flag, I always felt that it, it meant fairness....and that this was a place where....the fair thing was supposed to happen....I guess that´s....pretty naive these days (chuckles) but uh.... it´s still a good idea....and I´d like to do this song for you, this is a song by Woody Guthrie and it´s about the greatest song, I think, that´s ever been written about America....it gets to the heart of the promise of what our country was supposed to be about....and as we sit here tonight, that promise is eroding for many of our fellow Americans....and uh....I guess that´s all, that´s all our responsobility....and you gotta watch out because with countries, just like with people, it´s easy to let the best of yourself slip away...anyway, I´d like to do this for youse wishing you all the longest life with the best of everything....”
 * 09.08.85 Chicago, IL, intro to ´This Land Is Your Land´**

//Compiled by : Johanna Pirttijärvi//